McDonald on Murray State series

17122010

Earlier this week, Murray State coach Billy Kennedy hinted that Saturday’s WKU-Murray State game could be the last contest in the series for some time – as the deal between the two schools has not been renewed.

“We tried to work on it the last year or so, and (WKU) wasn’t interested in doing it at that time,” Kennedy told reporters earlier this week. “Right now, they’re not sure they want to continue to play the series. We’re going in a different direction, and if it changes, hopefully we’ll be able to keep it going.”

On Friday, WKU coach Ken McDonald discussed the situation.

“There have been no formal talks about the continuation of this series or eliminating this series, that’s not the truth,” McDonald said. “We’re continuing to look at our schedule and trying to make it the best for our fans. We understand this rivalry and it’s been a healthy series. It’s very competitive, a good RPI game. But at the same time, we have Louisville on the schedule, South Carolina, Southern Illinois – all road games coming up. We have to continue to put ourselves in position nationally to play a top schedule. We have some games to fill and (Murray State) is one we’re considering. But to say that we’re not wanting to continue this series (is not true), we’re not at that point yet.

“It’s a good series, it’s very competitive. Coach Kennedy has done and excellent job and we respect their program. It’s a strong possibility. But (with scheduling) we’re going to look at everyone we can. We’re going to look at Butler, we’ll look at Xavier, we’re going to try to contact Cincinnati. We’re going to try to get the same type of deal we had with Louisville with someone like a Tennessee. We’ll continue to talk to Vanderbilt about coming here. Regionally there are a lot of options, we’ve talked to Kentucky about playing in Louisville – there are a lot of options and we don’t want to shut any doors. UAB, VCU are other options.

“We’re working all angles, we’ll continue to be aggressive and Murray State is definitely an option – but there are other options. My history in the first three years as head coach has been aggressive, I want national games, I want to help our team get better for the Sun Belt Conference season and I want to continue to bring in teams in Diddle that fans are excited about. There are a lot of options out there.”